WooCommerce Simple Auctions

Thank you for purchasing our plugin. If you have any questions that are beyond the scope of this help file, please feel free to email via contact form here. Have fun!

Change Log

Warning:

Always backup WordPress database and files before updating to latest version, just in case!

Note:

If you override default and use custom templates in your_theme/woocommerce/ you need to make sure that templates are updated with those in plugin_dir/templates/ - otherwise some new features like sealed auctions and new sorting options might not show up on the site.

Overview and Features

WooCommerce Simple Auctions

WooCommerce Simple Auctions is a plugin for a plugin :) Since WooCommerce is popular we decided that it would be neat to extend it with auction features. We wanted to make it easy to use but also to include all auction features so you get a powerful auction solution which is easily setup and customized.

With our auction plugin you can setup WordPress auction website and start auctions in less than 30 minutes (assuming you have payment processor account ready). Plugin integrates seamlessly with WooCommerce and no special knowledge is needed (same level like for standard WooCommerce usage).

Installation

Note:

Make sure to install WooCommerce before you activate WooCommerce Simple Auctions plugin.

You can install plugin via WordPress "Add New" plugin - to do that download "Installable WordPress files only", click add new and that's it. In case you do not have permissions to upload to plugins/ directory you will need FTP login info.

Alternative setup. After downloading WooCommerce Simple Auctions plugin, extract plugin zip and upload it to your plugins directory - wp-content/plugins/ folder of your Wordpress installation. Since this is extension for WooCommerce you need to install WooCommerce before activating the plugin. WooCommerce plugin which can be downloaded here.

Note:

Once you installed and activated WooCommerce go to WooCommerce > System Status and make sure that you don't have red colored errors (specially for WP memory limit). Make sure to enable inventory management in WooCommerce!

Path to curl can be /usr/local/bin/curl or /usr/bin/curl etc. Best way to make sure you have exact path to curl is to contact your hosting support (and ask them to help you setup cronjobs, afterall they're there to help you with things like these).

Here is screenshot of cronjobs page and setup in DirectAdmin control panel

Here is screenshot of cronjobs page and setup in cPanel control panel

More details about cronjobs can be found by googling "how to add cronjob in cPanel / DirectAdmin". If you don't know how to add cronjob the best and the easiest way is to email your hosting support to do it for you (purpose of hosting support are tasks like helping you with cronjobs, our support helps you with plugin issues - cronjobs are hosting related problem / issue).

Note:

If your hosting company does not support one minute cronjobs we suggest that you move your website to more serious hosting company or use service like EasyCron. We cannot use WordPress cronjobs because they are not reliable and depend on visitor accessing your website. In order to have reliable auctions you need real cronjobs.

Our plugin is meant to be used as ecommerce solution which will earn money so we suggest you to invest in proper hosting (which at least supports one minute cronjobs).

When you refresh your home page you should see new product with auction badge.

Advanced usage usually means setting up proxy bidding (auto bidding) and reverse auctions (for example you post a coding project and want to get lowest possible price for it). If you set reserve price for proxy auction, first proxy bid will be automatically raised to that (reserve price) value.

If you enabled "Sealed Bid" checkbox, you will not see "Current Bid" value but text message "This is sealed bid auction".

Quick overview of the auction workflow / process

You setup new auctions which are visible on your website. User bids on auction and is either outbidded or wins auction. User / customer now needs to pay for the auction won. There is no way to force user to pay for auction so you need to take that into consideration. Auctions that are not paid can be relisted (auto relist option called "relist if not paid after n hours").

Order is created when winner clicks pay now button. If user does not click on pay now button order will not be created. Once order is created users will see it under My account -> Orders. Before order is created user will see auction on pages where you display my auctions shortcode with pay now button. All winners will also receive email notification pay for auction reminder (how often depends on cronjob setting for cron named mails). In that reminder to pay notification winner will receive pay now link. Along that administrator will receive email notification when auction is finished or failed with info who won auction or why auction failed.

Changes in WooCommerce

After you activate WooCommerce Group Buy plugin couple new options will appear:

WooCommerce product has new tab in Product data block called Auction

Product list has column with auction status icons

Product list filter has auction filtering

Single product page in wp-admin has new block named "Auction" where you can see auction history and number of different email notifications sent

Orders list has column with auction icon to easily see which order is from auction

Plugin Options

Here are settings that you can turn on and off. Settings are self explainable. You can enable or disable showing past and future auctions. Another useful setting is whether to mix regular products with auctions or just show auctions on separate page (defined via Auctions Base Page dropdown, see screenshot).

On screenshot below you can see how product list with auctions looks like. Auction status icons are explained on the screenshot.

On screenshot below you can see how to enable live ajax updating of current bid price (feature introduced in version 1.1.x). To minize number of requests, ajax request is done only if you have bid tab in focus otherwise ajax is not running. This is done like this to make it easy on server and hosting resources.

Note:

Once auction is closed (or finished) you can relist auction again. Also if someone does not pay for auction you have ability to relist auction.

Automatic relist feature is available from v1.1.16. It enables you to automatically relist expired / finished / failed auctions if user still has not paid for won auction. You need to setup cronjob /usr/local/bin/curl --silent http://www.your-domain.com/?auction-cron=relist every hour.

Note:

Automatic relist feature requires cronjob to work properly. Feature is introduced in version v1.1.16, so make sure to have that version installed.

Simple Auction plugin supports bids up to 4 decimal places (for example $0.0001) but in order to work properly you need to set under WooCommerce Settings -> Currency Options -> Number of Decimals to 4.

Plugin has option to overview complete auction activity from wp-admin, you need to click on Auctions Activity link inside WooCommerce menu in wp-admin and you will get list with all auction data. See screenshot below.

Here is screenshot of available widgets:

Auction Closing Soon Email Reminder

From version v1.2.18 new feature "Auction closing soon email reminder" is availabe. This allows users who placed a bid or added auction to whishlist to get email notification that auction is closing soon. There are two timers which enable you to send for example email reminder when 1hr and 30 mins is left till auction closing. You can use one or both timers.

Custom Templating

If you need to customize plugin templates first thing to do is to copy content of plugin_dir/templates to your_theme/woocommerce so you do not overwrite changes when you update plugin. All changes and modifications should be done on files located in your_theme/woocommerce/.

How templates are loaded?

Function auctions_page_template() first checks if you have your own archive-product-auctions.php template and loads it. If it doesn't find that template plugin loads default Woocommerce archive-product.php template.

What is archive-product-auctions.php file? It is default auction archive template (template with list of all auctions similar as shop template in WooCommerce) \woocommerce\templates\archive-product.php or \your_theme\woocommerce\archive-product.php - in order to create custom archive page for our plugin just copy \woocommerce\templates\archive-product.php or \your_theme\woocommerce\archive-product.php and renamed it to archive-product-auctions.php then you can make your custom archive page / template which will be loaded by Simple Auction plugin.

Shortcodes

Here is a list of all available plugin shortcodes. Some shortcodes accept optional orderby and order attributes.

and in product data you will get new product condition option available to select named "Old".

How to increase bid step for bid increment value to be more than 1? Bidding increment is done so you can bid in increments of 1, because otherwise if you set bid step of say 5, you would be able to bid 5, 10, 15...
instead you can bid 7, 13, 22, etc. If you insist on different behaviour, you need to edit templates\single-product\bid.php and change:

Can I delete fake bid? - Yes, go to item details, section Auction where auction log is and click on delete.

Can users create their own auctions like on eBay? Can I charge fee for auctions published by users? - Yes but you need 3rd party plugin for implementing WooCommerce multivendor / marketplace. Then your users will be able to post auctions and you can charge fee for their sales. You can use Dokan multivendor plugin which has frontend auction submissions (you need Business version or Free, Starter, Professional with Auction module) or Woo Product Vendors. There is also free plugin which allows you to charge a fee on checkout.

Do you use cronjobs? - Yes. Please check installation instructions. Cronjobs are used to finish auctions consistently for all users and at right time, send email notifications and automatically relist expired / failed auctions (optional). Auction check cron has to be run every minute, script will be loading for almost 1 minute, then it stops with HTTP 200 response code - there should be no output just blank page.

Where can I edit email templates? - Go to WooCommerce > Settings and click on Emails tab.

Does this plugin work with caching plugins? - Yes, WP Super Cache and W3TC work fine with our plugin but we advise no caching for logged in users. For example if page cache is enabled widget recently viewed auctions will not work properly. Once user is logged in and there is no caching anymore all widgets work. You can use CDN and browser caching. Our plugin demo website uses WP Super Cache with page and browser cache. All of our plugins have same requirements for caching as WooCommerce - check it here https://docs.woocommerce.com/document/configuring-caching-plugins/

What is reserve price? - A reserve price is the lowest price at which you are willing to sell your item. If you do not want to sell your item below a certain price, you can a set a reserve price. The amount of your reserve price is not disclosed to your bidders, but they will see that your auction has a reserve price and whether or not the reserve has been met. If a bidder does not meet that price, you are not obligated to sell your item.

I want to extended auction finish time after a bid is placed so that it only extends the auction if a bid is placed when the auction is within 5 min of closing? Auction anti snipping feature. - It is possible to do that, add this code to your functions.php https://pastebin.com/xvmxUy27

Bidder beat another bidder with same amount? - When Proxy Bidding is in effect, it can appear as if one bidder has beat another bidder with the same bid amount. This is normal and occurs when a bidder has a proxy bid in effect and a second bidder comes along and makes their bid at the exact same amount the current proxy bid is at. Since the proxy bid was placed earlier, that is the bid that will succeed. For the second bidder to succeed in placing a bid, they must bid higher than the proxy bid that is in effect.

How can I show only finished auctions? - You need custom page template with custom query:

You can download here page template which shows only finished auctions. From version 1.2 there is shortcode show past / finished auctions.

Can I make theme with WooCommerce Simple Auctions and sell it on ThemeForest? - Sure, just purchase extended licence and you're good to go.
Since the current licenses do not deal with re-selling Items, Envato lets authors to decide whether they grant permission for bundling Items or not. We have the following conditions, and you need to follow them:

You cannot redistribute the item "as-is", even if you modify it or you make a derivative version for another platform

You cannot offer the plugin as a stand-alone item

You cannot include the plugin separately from your theme in the download package

You cannot provide an Item Purchase Code for your customers - Since Envato doesn't have a "multi-use" or transferable license, your customers are not entitled to receive an Item Purchase Code with your theme and use the plugin separately from your work.

Updating the plugin is your own responsibility

Since your customers cannot receive updates from us, you need to handle this on your own

You need to handle related support requests after your customers or you can instruct them to buy regular licence and ask us for support directly via our CodeCanyon profile (we cannot provide free support for your customers)

I can't do anything because I get "out of stock message"? - Simple Auctions plugin needs inventory / stock to be enabled. If you have problems all issues should be fixed by upgrading to Woocommerce Simple Auctions v1.1.6

I want to enable users to bid even if they are allready highest bidder? - In update v1.1.25 we have added setting option "Allow highest bidder to outbid himself", please use that setting to allow outbidding.

I have installed WC Vendors and I do not see auction product type? -
We have noticed that WC Vendors due to some problematic handling of product types (they are hardcoded into plugin!) has problems with auction product type. We do not recommend WC Vendors anymore but this multi vendor plugin.

How can I update plugin with new version? Is auto updating possible? - We suggest you to install Envato Marketplace (installation instructions can be found on plugin's url) plugin for auto update plugin and themes purchased on Envato. Setup is easy. Manual updating can be done by downloading new version of plugin and overwrite old files with new ones or deleting old plugin and installing new one.

Note:

If you have modified plugin files (templates) then you need to be careful when updating so you don't overwrite changes you made and that templates are inside child theme or theme woocommerce/ template folder.

How to change max bid for proxy bidding? - Add this to theme's functions.php:

Is it possible when a customer wins 2 or more auctions they all appear in the cart at the same time and than check-out all items at once? I want more than one auction in cart! - In file woocommerce-simple-auctions\woocommerce-simple-auctions.php find:

$woocommerce->cart->empty_cart();

and comment that line:

// $woocommerce->cart->empty_cart();

From version 1.2.7 that line is a bit different and it looks like this:

WC()->cart->empty_cart();

How to increase bid input field? - Easiest way is by using custom CSS:

You can use this CSS to add it to your theme's custom CSS:

input[name=bid_value] {
width: 195px !important;
}

Note:

You may noticed double plus and minus near bid input field on screenshot above. This is known issue with some themes. For solution see FAQ item no 25.

The Sort by price does not work. Is it posible to sort the auctions based on what has the highest or lowest bid? -
Yes, we have added auction specific sorting. Frontend auction sorting is availabe, you can sort auctions by current bid, date, buy now price, activity,
ending date (ending soonest) and start date (recently started). Feature is available from version 1.2 of Simple Auction plugin.

I see two plus and minus buttons near bid input field? - This is known issue with some of the themes (Enfold for example), due to their JS, solution is simple you need to comment out last line (173) in file
woocommerce-simple-auctions\js\simple-auction-frontend.js (example of that problem can be seen on screenshot in FAQ no 23):

I want to remove automatic relist option for users (for example when using multi vendor / sellers plugin)? Update plugin to v1.1.25. From version 1.1.25 you can use this code to do that (add code to your theme's
functions.php file):

Does Woocommerce Simple Auctions work with WordPress import / export tools? - Yes, you can export and import auctions with standard WordPress import / export tools that are located in Admin -> Tools menu.

I want to add bid button everywhere not only on single auction page? - You can add following code to your functions.php but you will need to style it properly using CSS - https://pastebin.com/fV33s8Gr

How can I enable user registration on login page? - You need to enable that feature in Woocommerce settings.

I have installed your plugin but images are not aligned, buttons are too small / big, input fields needs to be smaller / bigger, can you help? - In short no.

It's your duty to modify plugin template to match your style and theme. Themes can implement different ways how they customize pages and parts of Woocommerce. We cannot guarantee that our plugin will look same as in our demo for every possible theme out there. Web developing is more than
getting a theme and couple plugins, enabling them and deliver web site. Our templates are coded by standards and they adhere to WordPress and WooCommerce template structure.
That means that minimal intervention is needed from client side, but sometimes there is no way to avoid template changes. Some themes use similar structure and have minimal interventions in structure and our plugin looks good out of the box and some do not.
It's your task as web developer and client who purchased plugin to modify and customize plugin templates to match your own (or client's) needs and styles. This is part of developing a web site.
You cannot expect that everything will be perfect for every possible theme and plugin comibation out there or that we will do your job for you as part of support. We support plugin - we do not style and customize client's sites.
Thanks for understanding.

Note:

Right way to customize plugin's templates is to copy contest of plugin_dir/woocommerce-simple-auctions/templates/ directory to your_theme/woocommerce/ directory and do modifications there.

When you ask us for support make sure it's not related to tasks we don't do as part of support:

- style or customize your theme to do this or that
- provide support for bugs caused by 3rd party plugins or themes (we can pinpoint that some plugin is problematic)
- send you CSS or HTML code for modifying html elements

Is it possible to set proxy auctions on by default for all auctions? - Since version v1.2 there is option in Auction settings to enable this by default. Please check plugin options part of this documentation.

How to remove Simple Auction history tab or any Woocommerce tab in single product (auction) page? - Add code below to your_theme/functions.php (on the bottom):

I can't see auctions on shop page? I have defined auction base page and I still don't see anything?

If you want auctions on shop page in auctions settings make sure that you have not
checked settings "do not mix auctions and regular products".

Stock management has to be enabled otherwise you won't see auctions.

If you use WPML you need to define auction base page and make its translation in order to see auctions.

Some rouge plugin that modifies WP query in some weird way. Try disabling all plugins and leave only Woocommerce and Simple auction.

Poorly coded theme that modifies WP query. Change theme to default one which comes with WordPress to test if that's the problem.

I want to limit only bid increment not whole bid value? Right now you can limit bid value in Simple Auctions settings. But some want to limit your increase (n) in new bid value = current bid + your increase (n) that can be accomplished by using this code in your functions.php - '100' is hardcoded limit for your increase (n). You can download code at https://pastebin.com/XFcJ1zVr

How can I get refund if I'm not satisfied?

If you have problem with our items we require that you first get in touch with us so we can try to solve your problem. Our items are extensively tested and we will do everything to help you with problems you might encounter.

We only maintain english translation. We do not have resources to quality maintain other translations. If you have trasnlation, you can submit one to us and we will post it here for download if someone wants it, but those will be unofficial.

you need to upload both files to /wp-content/languages/plugins/ and not to plugin directory because translations will be lost if you update plugin by deleting old one

Note:

In filename wc_simple_auctions-en_GB.po suffix en_GB must match your language settings in WordPress, otherwise language will not be loaded. So for example you can have wc_simple_auctions-en_AU.mo,
wc_simple_auctions-af.mo or wc_simple_auctions-en_CA.mo, complete list of available suffixes are here https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/teams/

Where can I find max proxy bid for auction?
In wp-admin -> product details here is screenshot.

Does the user have to be logged in to be able to bid? Why?
User has to be logged in because we don't have reliable way to track its bid(s) otherwise. If you have real auction site at one moment user(s) will have to enter details for shipping, payment etc,
it's also a way to filter serious bidders and block fake accounts.

3rd party plugin is causing problems? Its developers tell you that we need to fix our plugin?
Woocommerce extensions should be transparent - meaning one extension should work with another without introduction of special code that makes them compatible. Imagine what would happen and how much time we
would need to spend if we would have to add a bit of compatibility code for every Woocommerce extension that's out there - we would end up in huge plugin with tons of problems which would be problem
to test and debug. That's why we think every plugin developer should stick to Woocommerce coding standards and APIs (they're there for that reason) and not require 3rd party developers to code something
into their extensions / plugins so that it could work with theirs.

How can I include winner user info in admin auction finished email notification?
You would need to copy template \woocommerce-simple-auctions\templates\emails\auction_finish.php to your_theme\woocommerce\emails\auction_finish.php and then add something like this:

Does it work with currency switching plugins? - We decided to skip currency switching support because each currency switching plugin uses its own hooks which we would have
to implement into plugin and maintain through updates. We did some testing and found out that free version of Currency Switcher displays different currecies fine, while paid does not for
some reason, Aelia Currency switcher does not work at all and fails with fatal error. It would require significant changes and modifications for us to bid in different currencies (possibly
introducing new bugs and problems) so we decided to skip multi currency support for auctions completely because it complicates a lot whole process of bidding and can confuse bidders
(for example someone bids $100 another bids 105.55 eur etc). If you need different currency auctions we think it is better to setup whole new auction site for different market / country with its own currency.

Winning badge is hidden behind auction / product thumbnail. What can I do?
You need to change z-index for winning badge:

span.winning {z-index: 1000}

Do you offer customization for buyers fee on auctions? - Yes, we can implement that feature (customization). Please contact us at [email protected] for more informations.

Auction ended but user (bidder) still can see countdown timer? Noticed that time left was out of sync on some computers? - Auctions use server time which is then translated to local time via JavaScript and considering computer's local time.
So auction will be finished on exact time set, however if client (bidder) has wrong clock set (which is rare nowadays since all computers are automatically synced to Internet time) they can see that auction has ended (but it didn't in fact) or
that auction has still going on but in fact has ended). They will try to bid but they will get error message. You need to instruct them to sort their clock issue and set aucto sync to Internet time.

If we would check server time each second that would be huge performance problem for busy sites and auctions which have a lot of participants and pages would not be cacheable.

How can I hide usernames in auction history list? - You need to edit template. First copy template woocommerce-simple-auctions\templates\single-product\tabs\auction-history.php to
your_theme\woocommerce\single-product\tabs\auction-history.php and edit file in that directory so update doesn't override your changes.

Then find and remove lines (or comment them out) 46 and 62-66.

If you use ajax bid refresh you will need to do one more thing - in \plugins\woocommerce-simple-auctions\classes\class-wc-product-auction.php find and replace get_userdata($history_value->userid)->display_name with preg_replace("/(?!^).(?!$)/", "*", get_userdata($history_value->userid)->display_name) otherwise when ajax update line you will get full username.

I see products out of stock in related products? Why? I want to hide out of stock products from related products! - This is WooCommerce related and not WSA. You have to change WooCommerce setting called "Out of stock visibility" which is located in WooCommerce Settings -> Products -> Inventory tab.

How can I place "add to watchlist" link to product archive page for all auctions? - You can add this code (thx Mike) to your functions.php:

Note that this action could have custom name because it was usually added by theme devs.

Why orders are not automatically created when user wins auction? - Order is created when winner clicks pay now button. If user does not click on pay now button order will not be created. Once order is created users will see it under My account -> Orders. Before order is created user will see auction on pages where you display my auctions shortcode with pay now button. All winners will also receive email notification pay for auction reminder (how often depends on cronjob setting for cron named mails). In that reminder to pay notification winner will receive pay now link. Along that administrator will receive email notification when auction is finished or failed with info who won auction or why auction failed.

What happens if winner does not want to pay for auction? - You can delete that winning bid and next highest bidder will be winner and will see pay now button for auction. There is auto relist option that can relist auction: "Relist if not paid after n hours".

What happens when you manually delete winner (winning bid) and want next highest bidder to become winner? Is email automatically sent? When current highest bidder does not pay and you delete winning bid, mails are not sent automatically to the next highest bidder / winner. You would have to manually contact next higest bidder / winner and send auction url where they can see pay now button and make payment.

When I click on bid button page loads slowly. Is there anything that can be done to speed up bid button request? - Sluggish website response (high TTFB times) on bid requests are 99% caused by slow mail server. When you click on bid button two mail notifications are sent (unless you have disabled them) - bid notification for administrator and for customer (and in some cases outbid note). If your mail server is slow, this can be a problem. Another cause might be slow server but in that case all requests will be slow. Email notifications are: outbid note, bid note, Customer bid notification. They can be disabled in WooCommerce Settings -> Emails.

I'm missing sealed bid checkbox in edit product details page but sealed auctions are enabled? - This happens when you have enabled proxy bidding by default for all auctions - then sealed bid option is disabled in product details.

I want to auto refresh page when future auction starts. What should I do? - You will need to modify plugin's public JS. So in file \woocommerce-simple-auctions\public\js\woocommerce-simple-auctions-public.js find line 124:

jQuery( document.body).trigger('sa-action-closed',[auctionid]);

and after that line add this:

if ( future ) { location.reload(); }

reload with CTRL+F5 to make sure new JS is loaded and it should auto refresh page.

I want to validate payment method for users / bidders and have role based bidding. What should I do? - All code should go to functions.php Define which role can place a bid with:

Default role should be in above case 'subscriber' which then is changed to say 'customer'. You can create also custom role say 'bidder' using some plugin for WordPress role management (like this one User Role Editor). To validate payment and enable user to bid create product with price say $0.01 and using add_action( 'woocommerce_order_status_on-hold', 'mysite_woocommerce_order_status_pending', 10, 1 ); hook change user role to the one which can bid. If you don't know how to do that contact us or hire web developer for help.

Love this plugin?

This plugin is created by wpgenie. Check out our Envato profile where you can support us by purchasing our plugins, give us feedback and post your ideas and feature requests, ask for support and rate our items. Check out our free stuff.